![]() Willis says he and his team of eight are constantly "working on things to make easier to manufacture and save cost on hardware and things." “There’s an adjustable, ergonomic, high back seat that makes it a bit more comfortable for the long haul.” The new additions add just three pounds to the kayak's weight. “The seat is the other really big use upgrade,” Willis says. “We developed it partly in response to customer feedback over the past couple of years and partly to explore different designs and technologies we had been looking at,” he says.Īmong the additions are new buckles, similar to what are found on snowboard bindings, that make it easier for people with less hand strength to put the kayak together. Willis calls the just-released Bay+ “a premium upgrade model.” The same size and basic specs as the first Oru Kayak, it has “a bunch of new accessories and fittings” that make it more convenient for the user. And I always had a very hands-on approach to architecture, with models and things, so that helped as well.” THE BAY+ As far as design education, architecture is one that gives you a very general approach to problem solving, as opposed to specific technical skills, so that was very useful. It wasn’t easy to design an origami kayak, but Willis says his background as an architect certainly helped "in somewhat unexpected ways. There’s a lot of hand assembly to attach the other parts and hardware.” It’s die-cut-it’s like a huge cookie cutter, basically. “It was a fair challenge to get a big enough piece of material to work with since it isn’t a stock size and I wasn’t ordering thousands of pieces,” he says, “which is usually what you have to do if you’re trying to get custom material sizes in anything.”īut he figured it out: These days, every kayak starts as “a single sheet of flat material, about 5 by 13 feet,” he says. Willis made 24 prototypes in all he says it was about five years between when he first got the idea and started Oru, but that halfway through there were functional kayaks-they just weren’t ready for manufacturing. It was made from a 4x8 sheet of Coroplast from a sign shop and that turned out not to be big enough.” (Willis also notes that after that initial disastrous run, “I started testing it in cleaner places.”) “Nothing malfunctioned, it just wasn’t a big enough piece of plastic to support my weight. ![]() “I paddled it for 30 seconds and then it started sinking,” he says. It does not store any personal data.When he had his first prototype made, Willis took it out to Berkeley’s Aquatic Park-which he says is “stagnant, and pretty awful”-to test it out. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. Oru say tat it “tracks and handles far better than inflatable kayaks” and that it’s “stable, but also nimble and playful.” The end result is a “stable cruiser” designed for flat, mirror-smooth water. Instead it folds out and into shape – a bit like a nifty bit of origami – transforming from box to boat in a few well-placed folds, clipped buckles and Velcro straps. There is no air pumping required with the Inlet. The latter is the headline claim ORU Kayak are excited to shout about – a “ridiculously fast” and super simple assembly that sets the Inlet apart from slow-to-inflate yet quick-to-tear inflatable kayaks, according to the US firm. The Inlet’s vital statistics are as follows: it’s 10ft long and 79cm wide, weighs 9kg (the Californian-based brand’s lightest ever vessel), folds into a box about the size of a guitar case (107 x 25 x 46cm), and can be set up in three to five minutes. It fits into its own backpack and can be easily hiked up to remote tarns, making hike-kayak hybrid adventures a real possibility. Have you ever climbed to an idyllic alpine lake or isolated Scottish lochan and wished you could kayak the crystal clear waters? Well, now you can – thanks to the release of the ORU Inlet, a super-lightweight, ultra-portable and quick-to-assemble folding kayak.
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